Palin: Permit me to inform you of some Supreme Court decisions with which I disagree

posted at 4:45 pm on October 3, 2008 by Allahpundit

Sounds like she prepped just in case Ifill decided to sandbag her by revisiting one of her Couric lowlights. As it is, she seems almost eager to show how many cases she can rattle off. Three good ones: The child-rape death penalty travesty to which even The One objected, the Exxon Valdez decision which she sort of has to name since she’s already on record as objecting to it, and a third that’ll make the hearts of rock-ribbed conservatives everywhere leap. Exit quotation: “I’m accessible. And now that the debate is over … the wings are flying here. Let’s soar, let’s get out there and speak to voters and let them know what their choices are.” Has the ‘Cuda been freed?

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Along with that other post, why don’t you all tell me your wonderful eloquent Senator and House of Representatives names for the GOP. How are they working out for you, eh? Proud of them all aren’t you?

I have the lovely an eloquent trifecta of Senators Barbara Boxer and Diana Feinstein, and the lovely Representative Mary Bono. These lovely ladies speak quite good english but I guarantee they are no where near as smart as Sarah by any stretch of my imagination. I’ve meet Mary face-to-face and she’s as empty suited as my Senators and Senator Obama. She couldn’t answer a single one of my questions directly and gets her talking points from the staff she surrounds herself with, as I suspect all of these other people do. I find it fascinating that when Sarah answers without handlers she does a much better job. Go figure. *shrug* You people prefer your politicians spouting the right talking points most eloquently. You get what you pay for, you know people?

This Effing *eats* thing is getting effing annoying as hell. I feel my nerd quotient go up every time I see one of his posts…I quit reading his posts to protect my non-nerdness but I see this *eats* sh!t about every 6 posts.

I say ban him, or limit him to 55 posts a day (about 1/8 his current output) or make him stop with the annoying *eats* sh!t.

And who knows, some tough love on this geeky dude will help him in the long run…we are enabling him with letting him get away with making HA his private nerd fest.

I also just had an realization that if McCain hasnt figured out to change his stupid view on ANWR at this point, its over. Its over anyway….even though Palin did well last night.

Wow…I don’t know whether to laugh at Sultry Beauty, agree with her or suggest medication. I can agree with a lot of what she said, but the big worm at the bottom of the bottle is this: “Along with all the little kiddies in Venice, CA. Obama’s going to save us from this nasty little virus.” I wonder what makes her think that Obama’s bug isn’t much more deadly, kinda like weaponized anthrax…Not even Reaganomics can survive that.
I don’t like McCain’s stand on a number of issues, but SB is really ‘out there’ with her delusional imagery and i can guess that she’s just green about Sarah, and i don’t mean environmentally friendly.

I’m not quite sure what he is… although “Liberal-leaning” would be about the most lenient I would guess at, given the way he’s quoted Liberal musicians’ lyrics to bash on conservative concepts in the past.

Whether you are liberal-leaning or conservative-leaning, your general point is sound. None of us here who don’t use our real names and don’t have ourselves accountable for our opinions are really doing any good. We sit here and chastise – and sometimes personally insult and demean – those who put their names to their opinions, yet most of us hide behind the anonymity of the internet and cute little fake online monikers.

Seriously, are our elected officials supposed to worry about what “AllahPundit” or “Grue in the Attic” or “Michael in MI” say in some online message board? Hardly. For all anyone knows, we are just some geeky 16-17 year olds who can’t even vote. So there’s no reason for anyone to take what we say seriously. Especially if we don’t even take ourselves seriously and simply hide behind fake online personas.

That said, I can understand why someone like “zombie” from zombietime wants to stay anonymous, because s/he does a lot of infiltrating of leftist rallies and such and doesn’t want to lose that access if their anonymity is compromised.

But for the rest of us, there is no reason to not go by our names, unless we are not fully proud and confident of our positions and are worried about any backlash.

I give kudos to those such as Charles Johnson and Ed Morrissey and Michelle Malkin and those at NRO and Jim Hoft (Gateway Pundit) and Bob Owens (Confederate Yankee) and Robert Spencer who put themselves out there in order for their work to be taken seriously.

I spent most of today in downtown Los Angeles, tending to government business. At Starbucks for a quick breakfast, at a hyper-crowded local restaurant for lunch, in the halls of federal bureaucracy, in the bowels of the liberal beast, people all around me were talking about Sarah Palin. Strangers of diverse ethnicity and age making conversation to kill time asked me if I watched the debate. Every comment I heard without exception was favorable.

Whether you are liberal-leaning or conservative-leaning, your general point is sound. None of us here who don’t use our real names and don’t have ourselves accountable for our opinions are really doing any good. We sit here and chastise – and sometimes personally insult and demean – those who put their names to their opinions, yet most of us hide behind the anonymity of the internet and cute little fake online monikers.

Sometimes we have to use handles though. I’m in the education field and I’m untenured. If I used my real name and my employers found out that I am politically conservative–I can literally lose my job. I have to support a family and–other than the having to deal with the leftist ideology that permeates my profession, I genuinely enjoy teaching–and yes, I do keep my politics out of the classroom–although I also feed my students little nuggets to get them to at least look at the conservative point of view–and very often I get a favorable response. You’d be surprised at how genuinely pleased students are to not have to deal with a teacher trying to indoctrinate them. But, I’m rambling as I often do. I shouldn’t have to feel the need to hide behind an alias–and one day hopefully I won’t have to anymore. But–for now–I do.

Not true. Not only are there excellent ideas for anonymity (see Debbie Frish), but also there should be more weight to the message and not the identity that way.

Spirit of 1776 on October 3, 2008 at 6:58 PM

I have some sympathy for that point. Point taken.

But how is what we do, going by fake names, any different than the mass media saying “an anoynmous source said…”? If it’s the message that matters, then we shouldn’t get upset about anonymous sources right?

I don’t see the difference between the NYT stating “an anonymous source at the Pentagon stated…” and some blogger stating “Spirit of 1776 in the comment section at HotAir stated…” See what I mean? Neither holds any credibility whatsoever, right?

Obviously, I DON’T take myself seriously. HotAir, to me, is a place to discuss my political viewpoint with people who see likewise… and while I may grumble and gripe and complain about the way politicians run things, I don’t honestly expect them to pay any attention. Heck, I’m surprised when someone like Rush or Hannity mentions HotAir on their show – and it’s happened once or twice, usually mentioning Ed in the process.

But mostly I’m here because I enjoy it. I would never want to do something like this for a living – as it is, just coming here as a hobby, I still get burnt out every few months and have to take a few weeks’ leave of absence. If I was actually doing this in a position such as Ed’s, then yeah maybe I would be going by my real name instead of by Grue. But I’m not, I’m merely a commentator, an anonymous face somewhere across the internet who claims to be a 23-year-old data entry coordinator for a company in Arizona, and although I don’t think I’ve given anyone reason to disbelieve that I suppose you’re free to do as you will.

My $0.02 from a self-proclaimed anonymous nerd, take it or leave it… :)

I spent most of today in downtown Los Angeles, tending to government business. At Starbucks for a quick breakfast, at a hyper-crowded local restaurant for lunch, in the halls of federal bureaucracy, in the bowels of the liberal beast, people all around me were talking about Sarah Palin. Strangers of diverse ethnicity and age making conversation to kill time asked me if I watched the debate. Every comment I heard without exception was favorable.

I don’t see the difference between the NYT stating “an anonymous source at the Pentagon stated…” and some blogger stating “Spirit of 1776 in the comment section at HotAir stated…” See what I mean? Neither holds any credibility whatsoever, right?

Michael in MI on October 3, 2008 at 7:02 PM

To me, the major difference is the former is rather commonly heard, while I have never heard (or read) anyone use the latter in a serious manner.

I shouldn’t have to feel the need to hide behind an alias–and one day hopefully I won’t have to anymore. But–for now–I do.

Matt Helm on October 3, 2008 at 7:00 PM

Understood, Matt.

But this last statement I highlighted from you is exactly the problem. We shouldn’t have to hide behind aliases, but here we are doing it for fear of personal attacks from whomever, fear of our family suffering for it from personal attacks, fear of losing our jobs, etc. That should not be the case.

I was just talking about this with my coworkers yesterday after I sent them Ed Morrissey’s post regarding the Minnesota family who had their cars vandalized. I got a bunch of replies to my e-mail that I sent out to my list with people saying that situation was what worried them about putting anything conservative on their cars or in front of their house. They fear the backlash and the personal attacks in the way of ostracizing from friends coworkers or family or vandalizing attacks in the way of the car thing like in Minnesota.

I guess I can understand the need for anonymity in some cases, but I still believe that we in the blogosphere are not going to be taken seriously until we stop hiding (I’m including myself in this).

To me, the major difference is the former is rather commonly heard, while I have never heard (or read) anyone use the latter in a serious manner.

*eats*

Grue in the Attic on October 3, 2008 at 7:07 PM

Right, because no one can use the latter in a serious manner. Which is frustrating to me, because I have learned a lot from posters on message boards here, on LGF, on Gateway Pundit, etc and do you know how ridiculous I feel trying to explain to a friend or family member or coworker that I got my info online from “Grue in the Attic” or “Spirit of 1776″? I find myself in that situation a lot when talking politics with coworkers. We’ll be talking about an issue and then I’ll be wanting to say “oh yeah I read that on Hot Air, ‘AllahPundit’ stated…”… and they’ll look at me like I am nuts and cut me off and say “wait wait, what? AllahPundit? Who or what the hell is that?” and I will lose all credibility, because they feel I am not passing along my info from a credible source.

As many times as people say “who the hell is ____ and why should I care what s/he says about Palin/McCain?” on here, the basic response anyone can give to me when I pass things along from HotAir, no matter the facts of the content of the post, is “who the hell is ‘AllahPundit’ and why should I care what he says about ___?”

See what I mean?

I simply think that the internet and blogs are not going to be taken more seriously than the mass media by the majority of people in this country until we all get past our anonymity and start putting ourselves out there.

I have to use a handle because the stuff I say about my elected officials could get me in trouble with Article 88. Like coming to the internet in uniform.

hawkdriver on October 3, 2008 at 7:08 PM

I forgot to mention that I can understand the issue for those in the military, especially those on milblogs who are still active duty or reserve. But for the military, it is completely different, because the military takes away some freedoms (ie, not being allowed to publicly criticize elected officials.)

Ah, that’s right, the moonbat involved with harrassing the guy from Protein Wisdom. I vaguely remember the name now, though I can’t remember what the incident was all about. But now the name rings a bell. Thanks.

I guess the major difference between you and me is that I don’t talk politics offline. HotAir is really the only place I open up to political discourse. It’s never breached between my friends and I as we know it will only lead to bruised friendships, it’s a non-issue with most of my family and those it IS an issue with it’s much the same as with my liberal friends, and it’s not allowed to be discussed at work. So the problem of “Username X says….” never really comes up for me.

I simply think that the internet and blogs are not going to be taken more seriously than the mass media by the majority of people in this country until we all get past our anonymity and start putting ourselves out there.

While in essence you’re right, until much stronger restrictions are placed (which would be a double-edged sword) or people are prevented from getting access to information in certain ways (also a two-headed problem) being non-anonymous is an extremely dangerous prospect for the average websurfer. Given a choice between being anonymous and safe from hackers, stalkers, and identity thieves or being non-anon and credible I think (for now) I’ll stick with the first.

Am I missing something? Anonymity on a blog doesn’t keep you from sharing your thoughts to an elected representative. This is just an arena of ideas and a place to learn with little import as to who you are. A lot of really good ideas and interesting information is here and as long as it is backed up with supporting links I fail to see the difference in whether you know the posters “real” name or not.

Yeah, I was one of an original group of bloggers that followed a guys effort to alert all colleges and make sure she was never allowed to teach our children again. I’d say it ruined her life, but she is just so out there that for her it might just be another day in the neighborhood.

Teh Squeaky Wheel is the spin-off site. Nice people there. Great place to talk and give your brain a rest.

“who the hell is ____ and why should I care what s/he says about Palin/McCain?”

With the possible exception of Ed, even if we here were all going by our real names I doubt the response would be much different. For the most part, we are nobodies – we are just average Americans, not likely many of us are well-known or notible. So the difference between filling that blank with an anonymous username or a real name of someone who is still a vague identifier at best is very small.

I simply think that the internet and blogs are not going to be taken more seriously than the mass media by the majority of people in this country until we all get past our anonymity and start putting ourselves out there

I’ll tell you what. Some of the folks I lock horns with on the internet are pretty scary.

Hey, you guys that worry about posting under a pseudonym, tell me about it. I worked 25 years in Red China Washington, DC, where if they knew you were a conservative, you’d lose your clients, lose your job, lose your fist born child.

Given a choice between being anonymous and safe from hackers, stalkers, and identity thieves or being non-anon and credible I think (for now) I’ll stick with the first.

Grue in the Attic on October 3, 2008 at 7:21 PM

Point taken.

And that is really our problem right now. We’re not going to be taken seriously unless we are out there like journalists and mass media members and people like Michelle Malkin and Ed Morrissey and the members of NRO, etc… however, we’re all afraid to put ourselves out there like that, because we’re afraid of ackjasses personally ruining our lives with some sort of online attack or digging into our personal info and hurting our personal lives (such as what people did to Sarah Palin digging into her family and hacking her e-mail).

That said, I have a lot of respect for anyone, right or left, who actually puts their name out there and publicly stands behind their opinions. They risk a lot of personal damage by doing that, yet they still do it. It would be much easier to just stay anonymous and not have their name dragged through the smear machine and insult machine on the internet.

I have a friend in one of the few hollywood conservatives and he said you are just not allowed to talk about your politics. If the moonbats talk about their, he says you just nod your head. He claims they are vicious in their blackballing.

Hey, you guys that worry about posting under a pseudonym, tell me about it. I worked 25 years in Red China Washington, DC, where if they knew you were a conservative, you’d lose your clients, lose your job, lose your fist born child.

petefrt on October 3, 2008 at 7:26 PM

I can sympathize, but I just wonder why we all continue to hide. Nothing is ever going to change if we all keep hiding and not standing up and changing this about our society.

I don’t really have the answers, I’m simply thinking out loud here. I’ve been following politics and left-right issues such as this since 2001 and it seems like in every industry, conservatives are always saying they have to keep quiet for fear of repurcussions. Well, if we continue to stay quiet, we continue to allow the Left to have this power. And they continue to take advantage of this power.

I just wonder when we are going to do something to turn the tide. The irony is that it’s the left that always complains they are in some fascist state and they have no freedom to express themselves, when, in fact, it is close to the other way around.

Now that we’re throwing all of our cards on the table about what irratates tehm, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask Cindy to change her name to something else and “everyone” quit putting those stupid timestamps on their posts.

I just wonder when we are going to do something to turn the tide. The irony is that it’s the left that always complains they are in some fascist state and they have no freedom to express themselves, when, in fact, it is close to the other way around. – Michael in MI on October 3, 2008 at 7:36 PM

There really isn’t anything we can do but wait for the rift to continue as this nation divides itself between red state and blue state America. There eventually will be a tipping point, followed by a secession, an possibly civil war. It’s the way of things.

A measure of anonymity isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As I’ve already said, I use this handle for reasons of personal security–I wish I could be upfront about my conservatism–but right now, if I want to continue doing what I’m doing, I can’t–and I do enjoy doing what I’m doing. I have another alias I use for my online hobby where I’m involved with several other individuals of widely different backgrounds and where we have a gentlemen’s agreement to not talk politics. There’s at least one active Obama supporter in my circle and at least one other McCain-Palin supporter. Best for all concerned for us to just not even mention politics.

Why not just stop writing “eats” all the time? Seriously, please stop.

Dorvillian on October 3, 2008 at 7:26 PM

While I tend to agree that the *eats* thing is annoying (or anyone for that matter who has to sign off with some kind of moniker or schtick), I think what is more annoying is people railing on AllahPundit in every post about being pessimistic. That’s his schtick as well. He’s had it for at least over a year now. The easy thing to do when something is annoying is either ignore it or not put oneself in a position to have to deal with it. Don’t like *eats*, don’t read Grue’s comments. Don’t like pessimistic schtick in political commentary, don’t read AllahPundit’s posts at HotAir. Pretty simple.

Now that we’re throwing all of our cards on the table about what irratates tehm, I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask Cindy to change her name to something else and “everyone” quit putting those stupid timestamps on their posts. – hawkdriver on October 3, 2008 at 7:37 PM

What bugs me is all teh mispelings. And teh fact that poeple cant distinguish betwenn it’s and its. Or learn how to use teh “”qotation markz.

lol, Cindy you and me both. And there’s a special deal for my AKO (Army Knowledge Online) accounts that maddening. If you let it lapse, you can only change it on a terminal with a card reader to put your ID card in. We lead the way, er teh way, in security, but GRRRR. I have five separate account just for the military.

No confusion, I was giving Allah a hard time not you. You are absolutely right the difference in pronunciation if any is barely noticeable. Actually I am pretty much in total agreement with your post, why would anyone care about someone’s posting name?

If I had to come up with five different passwords I would retire. I tried to sign up to comment at Newsweek (I think) and it didn’t like any of the passwords I tried. Several times it told me that it had to be at least four characters. Now I have my faults but I can count past four and was giving them more than four. Someone from HotAir suggested I try Obama but it must have been taken.

I simply think that the internet and blogs are not going to be taken more seriously than the mass media by the majority of people in this country until we all get past our anonymity and start putting ourselves out there.

Michael in MI on October 3, 2008 at 7:15 PM

Just an observation:- Isn’t the message much more important than the messenger?

Okay, I don’t know about anyone else, but I get a little queezy when members of the military start talking secession… – Count to 10 on October 3, 2008 at 7:52 PM

I’m not a member of the military. Neither were the Founding Fathers – with the exception of George Washington, who was a Colonel in the Virginia Militia. The secession will begin the same way…by civilians.

1) Grue – I love the *eats* just as much as I like CyberCipher’s collie.
2) As far as anonymity goes, I’m not here to be “taken seriously” by the MSM. I’m here to enjoy myself and learn things. Also, I have an occupation that can cause extreme reactions in people because they can’t separate me from my occupation.

1. My mother pronounces the name of the first president as “George WARSHington” (I catch myself sometimes, too.) I like listening to people’s accents. (Other people’s, I, of course, don’t have one. ;)
.
2. Hot Air is my first foray into blogging, so I thought a nickname was the thing to do. Since joining, however, I’ve gotten a job in academia, which I like. I would rather nobody knew who I was–yet. But I understand Michael & agree w/his overall point.

Grue, your comments here are well-liked. Many of us appreciate your sense of humor, and are jealous of the time you are able to spend here. It’s obvious to me that you are having some fun, and if you’re not having fun with this blog, then what’s the point.

Roger Waters is well named. I am a huge fan of Pink Floyd, but both Waters’ and Gilmour’s politics are not my cup of tea. Liberals make good music. Wish they’d just “shut up and play yer guitar” (I think Zappa said that).

I just wonder why we all continue to hide. Nothing is ever going to change if we all keep hiding and not standing up and changing this about our society. — Michael in MI on October 3, 2008 at 7:36 PM

I completely agree we must stand up for our principles, but in a cost effective way. What credibility is added to my posts by attaching my actual name, when no one would recognize it anyway? I see no upside to it, but a substantial downside.

Do liberal posters use their actual names any more than conservatives do?

Now of course it would probably be different if I were in the profession of writing commentary, rather than blogging casually. As a professional, I’d probably need to add a resume’ and allow my readers some kind of background check for authentication.

Please don’t get me wrong, Michael. Your main point is well taken. We must stand up for our principles. Certainly the failure of our elected reps to do so has damaged us badly. On the other hand, I see no reason for useless sacrifice. I want to keep my powder dry until it can be useful in sending the bullet to the target.

Why not just stop writing “eats” all the time? Seriously, please stop. – Dorvillian on October 3, 2008 at 7:26 PM

Because its his schtick and those of us who have come to know him kind of like it…
ManlyRash on October 3, 2008 at 7:35 PM

As several others have said, I kinda like it too, like CyberCipher’s collie. Most of us have likely noticed that Grue’s posts are pithier than most of ours, mine included, and have good comments to boot. An extra six characters, cute at that, added to his/her short posts, aren’t gonna get in anyone’s way.

Terrie, the libtards at Starbucks couldn’t possibly be talking about Sarah Palin now, I had it on good liberal commentator’s authority that the debate performance was a one day phenom and that she’d be old news by now. Of course they said that when she was selected by Sen. McCain.